Encryption program obstructs prosecution

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- An inexpensive encryption program called Pretty Good Privacy is hampering the U.S. government from prosecuting a Canadian man on child pornography charges.

U.S. Magistrate Jerome Niedermeier has ruled forcing Sebastien Boucher to reveal his computer password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, ABC News reports.

Agents arrested Boucher at the Vermont border in December 2006 after they saw file names on his laptop computer that appeared to indicate pornography, including one labeled "2-year-old being raped during diaper change."

ABC says for more than a year federal authorities have tried and failed to crack the PC version of Pretty Good Privacy which is available for less than $200.

"PGP is full-disk encryption, which means the entire disk is encrypted and the only way in is to know the password, " says Charles Miller, a former employee of the National Security Agency.

A Secret Service agency testified at a court hearing in the Boucher case that "the only way to get access without the password is to use an automated system, which repeatedly guesses passwords," and that could take years.

It appears the government's only option is to appeal Niedermeier's ruling, ABC says.